Technology of loving – Decoding Samsung’s communication mantra

Tapping into the buying frenzy, Samsung India has rolled out its festive season sale, which will continue till October 22, 2017. The consumer electronics major has also launched campaigns for its Galaxy range of mobile phones and Smart QLED TV range. Samsung’s festive offers include assured gifts on every purchase, flexible EMIs, warranty schemes, long-term tenure schemes, zero down payment and more.

Samsung also launched a new campaign for its Smart QLED TV, and as in the case of its campaigns for its customer service vans and Samsung Academy, the TVC for Smart QLED TV, too, takes the emotional route instead of merely focussing on the functional aspects of the product.

Conceptualised by Cheil India, the ad highlights the beautiful bond shared between father and daughter, which only grows stronger with time. Both father and daughter share a common passion for football and love watching the sport on TV. But while the daughter wants to pursue a career as a football player, the father wants her to concentrate on her studies, which causes a lot of tension between them as the girl grows up. Ultimately, the girl’s football skills on the field, which the father watches proudly on TV, helps rebuild the loving bond between the two.

Agency Speak

Mohit Mishra, VP – Integrated Services, Cheil

Shedding light on the creative ideation behind the campaign, Mohit Mishra, VP – Integrated Services, Cheil, said “If you look at past TV advertising, it has invariably been technology and product showcase. However, in the most successful campaigns recently what stuck with Indian consumers and moved them were stories rather than technological jargons. While communicating the advancement in technology is equally important, it runs the risk of fading away quickly as well. Thus, the creative idea had to interpret Samsung’s powerful technologies to emotions that Indian consumers can easily understand and empathize. Therefore, ‘Technology of loving’ became the springboard for our communication idea and culminated into the creative expression of ‘Feel the picture. Feel the love’. The simplicity of the thought has been crafted into a beautiful story, making it heartwarming content.”

Elaborating on the campaign brief, Mishra said, “The brand communication for Samsung has been evolving. Together with Samsung, we have now been consciously laying emphasis on communication that is driven by emotional storytelling. Known for technological disruption, Samsung’s QLED already has a unique positioning. We followed the same philosophy for the product that was focused on ‘emotional technology’ or ‘Technology of loving’. The Cheil Global and Indian creative team worked collaboratively to design the communication with an intention to strengthen the Samsung’s leadership stance they enjoy.”

How is Samsung gearing up for the festive season?We have rolled out the Samsung ‘Smart Utsav’ festive initiative, under which we are offering exciting offers and incentives on the purchase of Samsung products to customers. The offers are available across product categories in the consumer electronics segment – TV, Refrigerator, Microwave, AC and Washing Machine, and are valid till October 22, 2017.

What has been Samsung’s communication approach to connect with the consumers in India? What has brought about this change?For Samsung, we have done several campaigns which include Samsung Smart Class, where a boy (Sadanand Ugale) from a small village of Maharashtra manages to go Australia for his project. There are over 2.5 lakh students like Sadanand, who have been benefitted from Samsung Smart Class which was tied up with Jawahar Vidyalaya. We had another heart-warming campaign – ‘Technical School’ – which showcased Seema Nagar’s journey and lastly, we had the Samsung Service Van campaign, which showed a man going to a remote area on time to provide service to blind children so that they can watch their friend’s show.

These campaigns showcase the values which include helping community and caring about consumers by bringing latest and innovative technologies for solving their problems. All of these helped us in establishing Samsung as the most trusted brand. Even on social media people post such beautiful comments about our communication approach and products.

Again, for Samsung QLED TV, it’s an authentic story of father-daughter bond and how the bond gets strengthen after watching his daughter’s victory.

What was the creative brief given to the agency for this campaign?For Samsung, consumers act as a censor for what we do; they are the only focus point for us. We constantly listen to our consumers and get inspired by them. Basically, the brief that was shared by Cheil was to create something which can have an emotional appeal and is family oriented, to which they came up with a beautiful story of father and daughter.

How do you come up with a marketing mix that works best for Samsung in India?We are one of the leading brands across different categories and thus, having the widest reach. For the Samsung QLED TV campaign, it is very important for us to target our consumers from all the sectors (urban+rural). Television is a big focus area for us with 25-30 second ads across different genres like sports, GECs, Music, etc. Digitally, on YouTube the viewership has grown up to 19 million views with great appreciation and we also had OOH billboards, Print ads, Mall Activations, etc.

Could you tell us about your strategy to retain consumers in rural India. What are the challenges faced by Samsung while doing marketing in urban India in today’s scenario?Samsung has been in India from the last 22 years. We really understand the Indian market. It’s not just urban or rural, we only want to give service to our consumers wherever they are. Samsung is No. 1 across different categories that we are operating in. We are one of the most visible and engaged brands across different media. We have also come up with the ‘Made for India’ initiative. In India, we have 5 R&D and 2 manufacturing centres, which allow us to bring unique products in the country. Thus, we are very optimistic and positive for India in the festive season.

What has been your strategy for expansion on consumer services?Recently, we announced an investment of Rs 4,950 crore for expanding our Noida factory. We are constantly expanding our service network and retail presence that we have in the country. Thus, in all forms we are deeply investing in India.

We have also launched 535 consumer vans which move throughout the country, including the rural areas. We also have various service engineers; they go along with the van to provide high quality service to consumers in rural areas. Samsung targets not just the urban markets, but also reaches out to the rural areas.

What would be Samsung’s focus area in the coming year?Samsung’s focus is very clear – it is the consumer. We are there to serve our consumers through our R&D centres. We are creating new innovative products which are inspired by them. As a true industry leader, we are majorly focusing on our consumers.